Mommy Dearest
by Fae'sFlower
Summary: Melena was convinced her green daughter was anything but ordinary. But when she is forced to take her on an outing, she learns that maybe, just maybe, her weird daughter may possess the same qualities as any other young girl. Drabble.
Melena Thropp watched as her husband walked out of the door , with the promise to return in one weeks time. She sighed, continuing to chew on her leaves, watching as her odd, three-year-old daughter squinted at something in the corner.

"You're a very odd child," she said, no hint of amusement in her voice.

Elphaba turned and looked at her mother, before going back to what she was looking at.

Melena frowned at the little girl and stood, leaving the room. She couldn't bear to be near the green monster for any longer. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small green bottle, the same shade as Elphaba's skin. Secretly, she knew why Elphaba was green, and she knew who her real father was, but she wouldn't tell her, and especially not Frex. He wouldn't even understand. He probably wouldn't even care.

"Let him think you're his daughter," she said to herself. "He spoils you enough. Acting as if you're his princess or something. It's not like he's home enough to care about anything else."

If Elphaba had heard, or even understood, her mother, she made no movement of acknowledgement. She watched as a spider scurried up the walls and disappeared from her sight. Blinking, she looked up and, not seeing her mother, stood up and walked away.

Melena heard her daughter's footsteps and looked up from her tea. "What do you want?" she frowned.

Elphaba frowned back, as if she wasn't expecting her mother to greet her with such hostility. She slowly walked towards her, and Melena stood up.

"What do you want, Elphaba?" Melena asked again, more impatiently.

Elphaba grunted and put her fist in her mouth. Melena quickly pulled it away. She had thought her daughter had grown out of that habit, and the last thing she wanted to do was wipe blood from the floor.

"Useless child," she muttered under her breath after she pushed Elphaba out of the room. She didn't see her daughter for the rest of the day.

Later that week, one Saturday morning, Melena realized that she was running out of cider. She wanted to go out and get some more, but she knew she couldn't leave Elphaba home alone.

"I could just leave you here," Melena said as she looked at her sleeping daughter. "I could just leave you here and not come back. Your father might not come back from his mission, either, and you would be here all alone forever."

But something stopped her from doing that and an hour later, she found herself outside, going shopping with the little green monster.

She walked rather quickly, thinking that she could lose the little girl in the crowd, but Elphaba stayed close to her mother, obviously not wanting to get lost. Realizing what Elphaba was doing and briefly accepting the fact that she wasn't going to lose her, Melena sighed and bought the cider. She walked around to the other booths, figuring that she could get a bit of shopping done.

"This would be so much easier if Frex wasn't so keen on being poor," Melena grumbled to herself, counting the number of green pennies she had in her purse. She looked up and saw Elphaba a nearby toy cart. Without even stopping to think about how Elphaba had gotten away, Melena hurried over to her and grabbed her arm, making sure she hadn't stolen anything.

"I'm so sorry," Melena apologized, thinking that Elphaba was driving away potential costumers for the cart vendor.

"No, it's completely alright. Children are always mesmerized by the toys," the cart vendor smiled and nodded.

Melena looked at Elphaba and followed her gaze to see what she was looking at. A bunch of rag dolls was hanging from the cart. She really didn't want to buy it. She didn't even like the child. But seeing the way Elphaba looked at one of the dolls made Melena momentarily weak and she bought it with the last bit of money she had. The moment she handed the vendor the money and he handed her the doll Elphaba was looking at, she seemed to wake up and realized what she did. She looked down and saw Elphaba looking at the doll, which was now in her hands, then looked back up at her mother. Melena nodded to the vendor and, grabbing Elphaba's arm, pulled her away.

"I hope you're happy now," she mumbled to her daughter.

Little Elphaba hadn't been holding her new doll for more than a few clock-ticks before she dropped it in the mud. Melena sighed and halted, reaching down and grabbing the soiled doll. "You can't even have something for one minute before ruining it, can you?"

Elphaba clicked her teeth, but said nothing. Melena examined the doll. There was mud on the front and right sides of the dress. Sighing, the two hurried home and Melena washed the dress as best she could.

 _Why am I doing this?_ Melena asked herself as she dried the doll. Thankfully, the mud hadn't done any lasting damage, and the doll looked like new again. _I don't even like the little terror._ Once she dried the doll off, she went in search of Elphaba. "Elphaba!" she called, her voice echoing through the house. "Elphaba, where are you?"

She found her daughter in her room, looking at a picture book. Elphaba looked up and saw her mother standing in the doorway. Melena quickly gave her daughter the doll and hurried out, trying to escape the weird feeling that was overcoming her.

In the middle of the night, she was woken up by something, yet she couldn't put her finger on it. There weren't any noises from outside and she couldn't remember having a nightmare. She decided to get out of bed and make herself some warm milk. As soon as she walked out, the feeling became stronger and she felt it pulling her towards Elphaba's room. Against her will, she obeyed the feeling and found Elphaba sitting up in her bed, clutching the doll for dear life. She had obviously had a nightmare of some sort. Her face was tearstained and the tear marks left burns on her skin.

"Elphaba?" Melena asked gently, surprised at how soft her own voice sounded.

Elphaba didn't respond, and Melena wasn't expecting her to. She slowly entered the little girl's room and pulled her into her arms. Elphaba stiffened, but very slowly relaxed in her mother's arms and went back to sleep.

Melena sighed and laid her daughter back into her bed. She wiped her hair away from her forehead and paused briefly before leaning over and softly kissing her forehead. Elphaba scrunched up her nose and twitched, but after a while, her lips curled into a small smile. Melena smiled softly to herself as she left the room. Maybe the girl wasn't as odd as she first thought.

* * *

 **Thank you all for reading. Don't forget to take the poll in my profile, please. And a story announcement: I will not be writing** ** _'Different Like Nothing'_** **right now. I will now be working on** ** _'Once and For All'_** **. Thank you!**


End file.
